Shows
Humans of StaffingThe profitability pyramid: Taking a staffing firm from $4M losing money to $3M with $400K profitShane Glavin built PowerCFO after serving as CFO at LaborMAX Staffing, where he watched small agency owners at conferences celebrate rate wins that were actually bad deals. His profitability pyramid framework took one client from $4M in revenue operating in the red down to $3M in revenue with over $400K profit by strategically cutting unprofitable clients and fixing margin leakage most owners don't even know exists.The numbers tell the real story: 70-80% of staffing agencies use factoring. Only 5-10% operate on their own cash, meaning the vast majority are functionally working for their funding companies. Shane's...
2026-01-291h 01
Humans of StaffingTidewater's Jay Prock On Ship Repair Staffing: Why On-Site Coordinators Are Still Beating AutomationWhat does it take to place temporary workers on billion-dollar naval vessels where internet connectivity doesn't exist, credentials expire weekly, and a falling piece of metal from 80 feet can be fatal? Jay Prock runs Tidewater Staffing, a family operation that deliberately fights growth for growth's sake to maintain the quality and safety standards that keep 3,000-4,000 people working annually in Virginia's ship repair and shipbuilding industry.
After buying the company from his father in 2018, Jay discovered that the real competitive advantage wasn't technology or scale. It was overstaffing with onsite coordinators who physically walk temps from pier...
2025-11-2055 min
Humans of StaffingInstant Teams' Liza Rodewald On Staffing Military Spouses And Women Veterans For CX RolesInstant Teams maintains 18% annualized attrition in customer experience roles where the industry averages 40-60%. The difference isn't compensation structure or benefits packages. It's building around military spouses who treat remote work as their career identity anchor while relocating every two to three years.
Liza Rodewald, a former software engineer turned CEO, explains how she built a customer experience marketplace that solves a structural problem: military spouses aren't a protected class, so you can't specifically recruit them. Her solution was building a mobile app and community that organically fills the talent pool with military spouses before roles get...
2025-11-0752 min
Humans of StaffingWSI’s Chloe Ryan On The Change Management Failure In RPO ImplementationsRPO sales cycles run upwards of 18 months because these deals require buy-in from the top down,not the transactional "I need 10 temps, sign a contract tomorrow" motion of traditional staffing. The primary failure point: nine times out of 10, clients aren't prepared for the recruiting methodology and process that sits way outside the comfort zone of most hiring managers. After building an RPO practice from zero to over 50 recruiters during her 10-year tenure, Chloe was brought in by WSI six months ago to build TalentSync as deal minimums collapsed from 1,500+ annual hires to 250.
Cost-per-hire pricing at 3-5% of...
2025-10-1652 min
Humans of StaffingGary E. Benedik on the 22-Persona Behavioral Mapping System Replacing Traditional HiringWhen your job vanishes with two hours' notice and your computer gets shut off mid-pandemic, you discover what you're really made of. Gary E. Benedik transformed that June 2020 gut punch into Arch Advisory Group, then sold it to Avenica; where he's now slashing headcount by 50% while scaling operations through behavioral assessment technology.
Gary walks Sammy and TJ through Avenica's data-driven approach: their HAALO assessment maps candidates to one of 22 behavioral personas, completely bypassing traditional resume screening. The foundation? A Manpower-Google-Cognizant study that found zero statistical correlation between resume content and actual job performance. By requiring both candidates...
2025-10-021h 02
Humans of StaffingHootRecruit's David Windley on Why Human-in-the-Loop Design Prevents AI Recruiting BiasFormer Microsoft and Yahoo executive David Windley explains how his AI sourcing startup maintains trust through architectural design choices that keep humans in control of hiring decisions. His approach addresses the core challenge facing staffing leaders: deploying AI that accelerates sourcing without introducing bias or losing candidate quality control.
Topics discussed:
Human-in-the-loop architecture implementation: Windley's specific system design where AI handles candidate discovery and assessment but humans retain all approval decisions, creating checkpoints that prevent algorithmic bias from affecting hiring outcomes
Semantic search advancement beyond Boolean logic: How large language models enable contextual...
2025-09-1843 min
Humans of StaffingHorizontal Talent’s Jeremy Langevin On How AI Can't Replace Storytelling and Empathy in RecruitingIn this episode of Humans of Staffing, Jeremy Langevin, CEO of Horizontal Talent, demonstrates how his nearly $200 million firm successfully implements AI at scale while preserving the human elements that drive recruitment success. He reveals the tactical framework for "human-in-the-loop" AI deployment, where voice agents handle 20,000 candidate pre-screens simultaneously while recruiters focus on storytelling, empathy, and cultural assessment—the irreplaceable human capabilities that close deals.
Topics discussed:
Human-in-the-loop AI framework: Defining what AI excels at (scale data analysis, standardized processes) versus uniquely human capabilities (storytelling, empathy, persuasion) to create optimal task allocation within recruitment workflows.
Voice AI...
2025-08-2657 min
Humans of StaffingTerraFirma Marketing’s Jay Mattern on Why Private Equity Can't Run Your Staffing FirmIn this episode of Humans of Staffing, Jay Mattern, CEO of TerraFirma Marketing, dissects his cautionary tale of selling to William E. Simon's private equity fund in 1999, watching outside investors destroy operational excellence, and executing a strategic buyback through bankruptcy court. After building a staffing empire from a house-based startup to $250+ million over 32 years, Mattern reveals why investor-led management fails in staffing and the specific frameworks founder-operators use to scale successfully.
Topics Discussed:
The Six-Point Scaling Framework for Breaking Revenue Ceilings: Mattern's systematic approach to identifying structural breakdowns at major growth markers (25M, 50M, 100M+...
2025-07-241h 03
Humans of StaffingPeoplease's Stu Churchill on PEO Partnership Red FlagsMost staffing agencies hit an invisible wall when trying to expand geographically because the compliance complexity of managing workers compensation, payroll regulations, and state-specific requirements across multiple jurisdictions becomes overwhelming. Stu Churchill, General Manager at Peoplease, however, has spent nearly two decades perfecting a co-employment model that eliminates these barriers while maintaining agency control over core business decisions. In this episode of Humans of Staffing, Stu tells Sammy and TJ how Peoplease's pay-as-you-go workers compensation model eliminates the traditional barriers to multi-state expansion. He explains the strategic liability split in co-employment relationships, where agencies maintain full direction and control...
2025-06-1850 min
Humans of StaffingTeem’s Cory Pinegar on How the Dental Industry Is 20 Years Behind in Business TechnologyThe staffing industry has undergone significant transformation, but few have approached it with the unique perspective of Cory Pinegar, Founder of Teem. In this episode of Humans of Staffing, Cory shares how a chance opportunity to clean out a closet for $500 led to acquiring a struggling dental service division for just $1. From those humble beginnings — where making payroll sometimes depended on collecting from a single difficult client — he's built a global staffing operation that now maintains a stringent 0.4% acceptance rate to ensure quality.
What makes Cory's approach revolutionary is his insight into healthcare staffing challenges: denti...
2025-05-2254 min
Humans of StaffingJobvious’ Brad Beach on Monetizing Your Professional Network With Staffing ReferralsStaffing industry margins are under unprecedented pressure, and Brad Beach, Founder & CEO of Jobvious & Tailored Management, has responded by creating a platform that fundamentally reimagines the economics of talent acquisition. After 30 years witnessing staffing agencies squeezed between MSP fees, shrinking markups, and intensifying competition, Brad launched a referral-based platform that compensates "network champions" with 10% of a placed candidate's hourly wage for the entire duration of their assignment. This approach doesn't just create significant passive income opportunities; it taps into the 85% of qualified talent not actively searching job boards while simultaneously reducing recruiting costs.
In this episode of...
2025-05-0851 min
Humans of StaffingMeritus Capital’s Adam Forbes on Funding Your Staffing Agency Without Personal GuaranteesThe precarious balance in staffing can shift in an instant — a single unexpected order for 100 workers by tomorrow morning could spell either tremendous opportunity or financial disaster. In this eye-opening episode of Humans of Staffing, Sammy and TJ dive deep with Adam Forbes, SVP of Strategic Partnerships at Meritus Capital, who reveals the financial machinery that powers successful staffing agencies.
From his dramatic origin story of walking into a dark office to find his employer shutting down with 400 workers in the field, to building his own agency from those ashes, Adam shares how accounts receivable factoring transformed his...
2025-04-241h 13
Humans of StaffingFirst Staffing Group’s Juliana Bojorquez on How Preparation Powers ExpansionJuliana Bojorquez, CEO, transformed from a receptionist in a staffing agency to building First Staffing Group into a thriving enterprise, with five locations serving Southern California and Texas in just five years. In this episode of Humans of Staffing, she reveals how reaching a career ceiling at previous employers sparked her entrepreneurial journey, the specific methodologies behind her rigorous client qualification process, and how maintaining financial reserves helped her company navigate the volatile 2020-2024 business climate when many competitors struggled with cash flow.
With 15 years of industry experience before launching her own agency during the pandemic, Juliana w...
2025-04-0349 min
Humans of StaffingMDRN Staffing's Edgar Mota on How Military Discipline Built a Blueprint for SuccessEdgar Mota, Owner of MDRN Staffing immediately fell in love with staffing because he was helping people. A sense of being in service to others was something he yearned for from his time in the US Army.
In this episode of Humans of Staffing, Edgar takes Sammy and TJ through his full journey, from hitting rock bottom after his deployment to discovering his passion for staffing, and an angel investor's unexpected offer to launch a staffing firm just before COVID.
Military discipline became Edgar’s business superpower, including through the sobering reality of client bankruptcies and...
2025-03-2041 min
Humans of StaffingVoyage Employer Services’ Daniel Beltran on Compliance as Competitive EdgeHow can a staffing agency steady itself in a Wild-West-type situation? In this episode of Humans of Staffing, Sammy and TJ dive deep with a rapidly growing staffing firm specializing in light industrial workforce management in California's challenging regulatory environment. Daniel reveals how Voyage differentiates itself in the Wild West of staffing through superior compliance protocols and workforce management technology while competitors race to the bottom on margins.
Facing California's notoriously low markup rates, Voyage carved out a competitive advantage by helping clients navigate complex regulations while building sophisticated timekeeping and workforce technology integrations. Daniel shares candid i...
2025-03-0644 min
Humans of StaffingDynasty Employment Solutions’ Miguel Angel Estrada Valencia on How Client Portal Analytics Cut Time-to-Fill by 40%In this episode of Humans of Staffing, Miguel Angel Estrada Valencia, President of Dynasty Employment Solutions, provides a fresh Gen-Z perspective on modernizing the staffing industry through technology and transparency. As a tech-native leader who built his career through innovative approaches to sales and operations, Angel shares how he's leveraging social media, AI, and digital transformation to reshape traditional staffing models while maintaining the crucial human element that drives success in the industry.
The episode provides senior staffing leaders with actionable frameworks for modernizing their operations while navigating complex regulatory environments and maintaining competitive advantages through technology...
2025-02-1846 min
The Growth GameAI-Powered Staffing: The Future of Workforce Management w Sammy SinghIn this episode of The Growth Game Podcast, Paul sits down with Sammy Singh, CEO and co-founder of WurkNow, a digital staffing platform that’s changing the game for hourly workers. With over 25 years of experience in the industry, Sammy is leveraging AI solutions to make staffing simpler, faster, and more efficient. Key topics include: AI for pre-screening candidates, time tracking, and schedulingAI as a recruitment companion rather than a replacementData-driven matching for improved placement quality Tune in to hear how AI is helping staffing agencies save time and focus on driving growth, and why Sammy...
2024-11-2522 min
BUILDERSSammy Singh, CEO and Co-Founder of WurkNow: $15 Million Raised to Power the Future of StaffingIn today's episode of Category Visionaries, we speak with Sammy Singh, CEO and Co-Founder of WurkNow, a digital staffing platform that's raised $15 Million in funding.
Topics Discussed:
Sammy’s ethnic, geographical and educational background
How WurkNow gives power to hourly workers, helps staffing agencies recruit, match and place individuals, and makes it easier for those agencies to follow compliance
Sammy’s experiences being an angel investor
What Blockchain has to do with Sammy’s work
Why Sammy prefers to learn from everyone rather than have one major inspirational figure
Favorite book:
The Millionaire Fastlan...
2023-08-1727 min
Staffing StoriesSammy Singh - CEO/Co-founder, WurkNow
Please help us welcome our special guest, Sammy Singh, to this Staffing Stories episode. Sammy has spent over 25 years in the Staffing Industry as an operator, software provider and innovator. He is currently serving as CEO/Co-founder of WurkNow, a digital staffing platform for hourly workers. WurkNow is a leading staffing VMS provider for agencies and employers. Their innovative ATS, Unified Timekeeping, and Agency Management solutions help businesses find workers, reduce time-to-fill rates, and scale faster.Join Sammy and our host, Andy, for this down-to-earth conversation as they dive into what it looks like and feels like to treat c...
2023-07-0326 min
Rec Tech: the Recruiting Technology PodcastCode Smoke Signals and Nomad Health FundingCodeSignal, a technical assessment platform dedicated to helping companies, including Facebook, Roblox, Zoom, Robinhood, and others, make data-driven hiring decisions in tech recruiting, announced $50M in Series C funding and the launch of CodeSignal’s new advanced Integrated Development Environment (IDE) that unlocks highly relevant assessment experiences. This round, which brings CodeSignal’s total funding to $87.5M, With Codesignal’s newly launched advanced IDE, candidates will now be able to interact with code, files, a terminal, and a preview of their application in a persistent, fully configurable environment. This means candidates will have a similar experien...
2021-09-2407 min